PRESS SERVICE

Asia Emerges as

the New Engine of Global Content 

ACFM Publishes 

the Second-Half 2025 Edition of The A Report 

▲ (Left) The A Report  main page of on the ACFM website / (Right) Japanese distribution climate featured inThe A Report: Japan

BUSAN — The center of gravity in the global content industry is shifting toward Asia. The vast domestic markets of China and India, the rapid rise of Indonesia and Vietnam, and the globally expanding IP from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are together shaping the industry's next chapter. 

The Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) has digitally published the Second-Half 2025 Edition of The A Report, an industry analysis report on Asian film and content, through the ACFM website (acfm.kr). With this edition, The A Report completes its inaugural annual publication cycle, marking a full year of industry data and analysis across Asia.

The A Report is a regular industry publication under ‘The A’, ACFM's project for establishing shared reference points and building industry collaboration across Asian screen industries. Based on a common analytical framework developed by ACFM, local contributors from 16 Asian countries — Bangladesh⬝China⬝Hong Kong, China⬝India⬝Indonesia⬝Iran⬝Japan⬝ Kazakhstan⬝Korea⬝Malaysia⬝Mongolia⬝ Philippines⬝Singapore⬝Taiwan⬝Thailand, and Vietnam — reported directly on their own markets. 

Mapping Asia’s Screen Industry in the Second Half of 2025

The report covers key topics including Production landscape, Financing models, Distribution climate, Theatrical reach, Technology and Production services, Streaming platforms and Digital growth, and International co-production. As structural shifts continue across Asia’s content industries — OTT growth, expanding co-production, and intensifying competition surrounding local content — the report tracks how these changes are unfolding differently in each market. 

In China, local films accounted for nearly 70% of annual box-office revenue, sustaining the world's largest domestic content market. In India, Hindi-, Tamil-, and Telugu-language films dominated the year's top-grossing titles, reflecting the self-sustaining scale of the country's multilingual industry. Japan's domestic anime and live-action productions continued to drive both local and international demand. Korea continued to expand IP-based global collaborations amid a foreign titles-led box office recovery.  Across emerging markets — Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand — local productions posted strong box-office results while demand for regional co-production rose in tandem. 

International co-production and IP collaboration are also major themes of the issue. The report notes that co-production is becoming an increasingly important production model, particularly in independent filmmaking, and that policy responses and competition to attract productions are expanding alongside it. Singapore has established itself as a regional hub, with international co-productions accounting for a significant share of its annual production volume. In Vietnam, a co-produced film with Korea achieved notable box-office performance, demonstrating the commercial potential of the co-production model. In Taiwan, a remake of the 2010 Korean film Harmony, released at the end of 2025, became a commercial success, illustrating the appetite for IP-based collaboration across the region. 

The coexistence of streaming and theatrical exhibition has also emerged as a distinctive feature of the Asian market. While OTT use is expanding across many countries, several markets are seeing box-office revenue concentrate around a small number of top-performing titles, while small and mid-sized films continue to face difficulties in theatrical release. In countries with stable theater infrastructure and distribution systems, OTT functions as a competing platform; in markets where that infrastructure is limited, it serves primarily as a distribution channel that expands content reach. Contrary to the common assumption that streaming is displacing cinemas, Asian markets are building a distinctive industry model in which the two channels coexist.  

▲(Left) ACFM ‘The A Summit I: AFAN Spotlight – Key Reflections of Asian Film Trends’ / (Right) ACFM Director Ellen Y.D. KIM

‘The A’ — An Asian Industry Cycle Connecting Data, 

Discussion, and Action

The A Report and the conference program ‘The A Summit’ form the two axes of ‘The A’, ACFM’s collaborative project for Asian screen industries. Built on analysis and insight from local experts, ‘The A’ seeks to establish shared reference points for Asian screen industries, facilitate the exchange of market knowledge and perspectives across countries, and create a foundation where industry leaders can discuss timely agendas and move toward collaboration and action.

Through an integrated industry cycle — data via the report, discussion via the summit, and action through co-production, policy development, international collaboration, and transactions — ‘The A’ provides industry analysis and insight that creators, producers, investors, distributors, sales companies, policymakers, and industry organizations can use to review and implement strategies for co-production, investment, distribution, and policy development.

ACFM Director Ellen Y.D. Kim said, "If the First-Half Edition of The A Report, first introduced at ACFM last year, marked the beginning of our vision for information sharing and collaboration across Asian screen industries, this Second-Half Edition carries that promise through the full arc of 2025. Working with contributors who kept sharing their insight despite difficult circumstances across Asia reminded us, once again, how precious the mutual understanding and collaboration through film and content are." 

She added, “Through The A Report and ‘The A Summit’, ACFM will continue to deepen the four pillars of ‘The A’ — Alliance, Analysis, Agent, and Art — beneath the encompassing canopy of Asia. We will not stop taking these steps toward mutual understanding and collaboration through film and content.”

The Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) is the official industry market of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) and is held every October in Busan. The 2025 edition, which marked ACFM’s 20th anniversary, registered 1,222 companies from 55 countries and 3,024 registered industry professionals, while total on-site attendance reached 30,006, the largest in the event’s history. A total of 8,438 business meetings were held in the Sales Market during the event, generating approximately USD 71.16 million in transactions.

The 2026 Asian Contents & Film Market will be held from October 10 (Sat) to 13 (Tue) at Exhibition Center 2, BEXCO in Busan.

*31st Busan International Film Festival: Oct 6 (Tue) – Oct 15 (Thu)

*21st Asian Contents & Film Market: Oct 10 (Sat) – Oct 13 (Tue)